4 Rules for Organized Living
My own personal mantra has always been “Keep it simple sweetie.”
No matter the situation or the conversation, my life works best when I keep it simple. What happens when it’s not simple? Stress from clutter, frustration from lack of time, or feelings of being overwhelmed are common when life is complicated. A focus on simplicity brings life into balance.
How do you keep it simple?
• Ruthlessly look for ways to cut down on clutter.
Set up a bag to drop in unused items to donate to our local philanthropies every week. Keep a shopping list of only what’s needed. When something new comes into your home, let go of something else. Simplify by letting go of MORE than you think you can.
• Prioritize you and your family’s commitments.
There are lots of “good” things we “should” do. Know what’s most important to you and your family and align your activities with these priorities. Keep up to date on your personal and family calendars to know what your commitments are.
• Know what papers to keep, what to shred and what to recycle. Set up a command center for papers that come in and triage paper daily. It’s a station in your home and office where paper is kept and categorized. Each day you go through paper and file, shred or recycle. Once a week have an administrative time to go through the remaining paper, pay bills, and do what’s needed.
• Host a weekly meeting for you and your family.
Building your team makes your efforts easier. Having everyone talk through upcoming activities and plans makes for good communication. Add time to your personal calendar for your own weekly planning as well where you consolidate information from papers, kids, email and more.
Have simple systems and routines in place to reinforce your new mantra. Your sense of efficiency, productivity and positivity will grow as a result too!
Simple is just more likely to be maintained… too complicated and there are too many excuses to bag out. I love the weekly meeting. It works for all ages and can help avert a lot of stress!
Thank Seana! I know as a business owner and mom you have used simple systems and routines too.
Timely post Ellen because I am in the process of doing this with my family and home right now. I am amazed that even after a year how much purging I am still doing. Might be my season of life since I just turned 41! 🙂 We love family meetings as well. I also have a meeting with David when Sam is at school. It helps us prioritize our week and get our calendars straight.
The journey is ongoing! We realize that we need to move stuff along depending on the “season” we are in. As Sam matures, you are finding this too! I love that you are already in family meeting mode.